A Magician Among the Spirits: The Improbable Friendship of Harry Houdini & Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
Eighty-eight years ago today, Harry Houdini, the foremost magician and escape artist of the 20th century, found himself in a situation he couldn’t escape. It was the situation that no one escapes – his last day on earth. Houdini’s final bow just happened to occur on Halloween.
The timing might have amused the famous illusionist had he been in a position to appreciate the irony. When he wasn’t escaping from straitjackets while hanging upside down from a skyscraper, Houdini spent a considerable amount of his time debunking stories of supernatural phenomena, particularly the belief in spirits. To die on the celebration day of ghouls, goblins, and ghosts would have been high comedy indeed to the man who had sometimes been perceived as possessing supernatural powers himself…
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